Category Archives: Conservation

Germany moves to legalise wolf hunting in response to livestock ‘bloodlust’

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Lower house votes in favour of polarising law after rapid increase in population and attack on grazing farm animals

Wolf hunting will be allowed in Germany under legislation passed by the lower house of parliament in response to a rapidly growing population and a sharp rise in attacks on livestock.

The return and growth of the wolf population in the last three decades has emerged as a wedge issue in Germany, the land of the Brothers Grimm who popularised the spectre of the Big Bad Wolf.

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Floreana giant tortoise reintroduced to Galápagos island after almost 200 years

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Subspecies driven to extinction by hungry whalers returns after ‘back breeding’ programme using partial descendants

Giant tortoises, the life-giving engineers of remote small island ecosystems, are plodding over the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years.

The Floreana giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger niger), a subspecies of the giant tortoise once found across the Galápagos, was driven to extinction in the 1840s by whalers who removed thousands from the volcanic island to provide a living larder during their hunting voyages.

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Deer shooting to be facilitated in England to protect woodlands

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Government plans legislation giving landowners and tenants rights to cull deer to protect crops and property

It will be much easier to shoot deer in England under government plans that aim to curb the damage the animals are doing to the country’s woodlands.

Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, plans to bring forward new legislation to give landowners and tenants legal rights to shoot deer to protect crops and property.

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Africa’s forests transformed from carbon sink to carbon source, study finds

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Alarming shift since 2010 means planet’s three main rainforest regions now contribute to climate breakdown

Africa’s forests have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source, according to research that underscores the need for urgent action to save the world’s great natural climate stabilisers.

The alarming shift, which has happened since 2010, means all of the planet’s three main rainforest regions – the South American Amazon, south-east Asia and Africa – have gone from being allies in the fight against climate breakdown to being part of the problem.

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Plastic nurdles found at 84% of UK sites of special scientific interest

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Environmental charity Fidra says 168 of 195 SSSIs it surveyed are contaminated with tiny pellets

Plastic nurdles have been found in 84% of important nature sites surveyed in the UK.

Nurdles are tiny pellets that the plastics industry uses to make larger products. They were found in 168 of 195 sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), so named because of the rare wildlife they harbour. They are given extra protections in an effort to protect them from pollution.

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Researchers say real impact of deforestation being hidden in Australia’s official figures by ‘sleight of hand’

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Report commissioned by conservationists suggests some recorded new growth is misclassified or otherwise not equivalent to losses in species-heavy forests

At face value, the amount of forest in Australia is officially increasing, and has been since 2008.

But if an old-growth tree is felled in a forest and seedlings grow elsewhere, is the official account ecologically sound? Not according to new analysis, which suggests that the way Australia calculates forest cover obfuscates the impacts of ongoing deforestation.

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With neonicotinoid pesticide ban, France’s birds make a tentative recovery – study

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Analysis shows small hike in populations of insect-eating species after 2018 ruling, but full recovery may take decades

Insect-eating bird populations in France appear to be making a tentative recovery after a ban on bee-harming pesticides, according to the first study to examine how wildlife is returning in Europe.

Neonicotinoids are the world’s most common class of insecticides, widely used in agriculture and for flea control in pets. By 2022, four years after the European Union banned neonicotinoid use in fields, researchers observed that France’s population of insect-eating birds had increased by 2%-3%. These included blackbirds, blackcaps and chaffinches, which feed on insects as adults and as chicks.

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Nature not a blocker to housing growth, inquiry finds

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Commons committee report challenges ‘lazy narrative’ used by ministers that scapegoats wildlife and the environment

Nature is not a blocker to housing growth, an inquiry by MPs has found, in direct conflict with claims made by ministers.

Toby Perkins, the Labour chair of the environmental audit committee, said nature was being scapegoated, and that rather than being a block to growth, it was necessary for building resilient towns and neighbourhoods.

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Biodiversity offsets failed to protect habitat in NSW. Now federal Labor is about to make the same mistakes, critics warn

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Offsets were meant to be a last resort for mitigating environmental damage from development projects, but rapidly became the default

The federal government risks repeating grievous mistakes made in NSW with its proposals to change the way developers compensate for damage to the environment, scientists and legal experts have warned.

As the Coalition tears itself apart again over climate, Labor’s plan to overhaul biodiversity offsets – and nature laws more broadly – has coasted under the radar with comparatively little scrutiny.

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Rare bronze and iron age log boats reveal details of Cambridgeshire prehistory

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Well-preserved oak and maple boats used for transport and fishing to be displayed in Peterborough

After lying undisturbed in mud for more than 3,000 years, three rare bronze and iron age log boats have emerged to offer fresh insights into prehistoric life.

The boats were among nine discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry 13 years ago – the largest group of prehistoric boats found in the same UK site. Most were well preserved, with one still able to float despite its long incarceration.

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Rare white Iberian lynx captured on film in Spain by amateur photographer

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Researchers to investigate whether environmental factors may have affected female animal’s pigmentation

An amateur photographer in southern Spain has captured unprecedented images of a white Iberian lynx, prompting researchers to investigate whether environmental factors could be at play as wildlife watchers revelled in the rare sighting.

Ángel Hidalgo published the images on social media, describing the singular animal as the “white ghost of the Mediterranean forest”.

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Gumnuts, baby! How two abseiling horticulturalists rescued specimens from an endangered tree

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The threatened Jillaga Ash (Eucalyptus stenostoma) was spotted 90m down a cliff in Wadbilliga national park, in southern New South Wales

Two horticulturalists have undertaken a daring abseiling mission to rescue gumnuts from an endangered tree on a 300m cliff face.

Stan Wawrzyczek, a threatened flora ecologist at the Threatened Species Conservancy, spotted an endangered tree, Eucalyptus stenostoma (Jillaga Ash), 90m down the cliff in Wadbilliga national park in southern New South Wales.

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The not-so-little Murray cod that could: fish tracked swimming 900km along Australia’s biggest river system

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Fish named after Olympic swimming champion Ariarne Titmus was most recently tracked at a section of the mid-Murray, near Belsar Island

A young Murray cod has swum one of the longest ever recorded journeys for the species, travelling about 900km through the Murray River, its streams and backchannels.

Murray cod, Australia’s largest freshwater fish, grow up to 1.5 metres and can live for half a century. Research by Victoria’s Arthur Rylah Institute has shown the species, listed as vulnerable under federal environment laws, is capable of covering extreme distances.

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Russia arrests Ukrainian biologist for backing curbs on Antarctic krill fishing

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‘Trumped-up’ charges spark diplomatic row as scientists express fears for health of 70-year-old Leonid Pshenichnov

A diplomatic row has erupted over the “illegal” detention of one of Ukraine’s scientists, who has been accused by the Kremlin of undermining Russia’s industrial trawling for krill in Antarctica.

Leonid Pshenichnov, 70, a Ukrainian biologist who is an expert on Antarctica, has a decades-long record of scientific research and contributions to conservation, including support for marine protected areas in the region.

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Scientists say North Atlantic right whale population slowly increasing

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Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the most venerable of the leviathans now numbers 384, up eight from past year

One of the rarest whales on the planet has continued an encouraging trend of population growth in the wake of new efforts to protect the giant animals, according to scientists who study them.

The North Atlantic right whale now numbers an estimated 384 animals, up eight whales from the previous year, according to a report by the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium released on Tuesday. The whales have shown a trend of slow population growth over the past four years and have gained more than 7% of their 2020 population, the consortium said.

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Companies could have profits from breaking environment laws stripped under Australian reforms

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Exclusive: Looming overhaul of protections should also include definition of ‘unacceptable impact’ on environment, Murray Watt says

The Albanese government wants the power to strip companies of any financial gains made from breaking environment laws, as part of a package of landmark reforms to be put before parliament in the next two weeks.

In an interview with Guardian Australia, the environment minister, Murray Watt, also revealed he wants a definition of “unacceptable impact” to be part of the nation’s new environment laws.

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Baby numbats spotted at two wildlife sanctuaries in hopeful sign for one of Australia’s rarest marsupials

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Video shows some of the juveniles exploring outside their den at Mallee Cliffs national park in south-western NSW

Baby numbats have been spotted at two wildlife sanctuaries in south-western New South Wales, sparking hope for one of Australia’s rarest marsupials.

Video captured by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) shows some of the juveniles exploring outside their den at Mallee Cliffs national park.

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Illegal gold mining clears 140,000 hectares of Peruvian Amazon

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Armed criminal groups tear down precious rainforest to capitalise on record gold prices, report finds

An illegal gold rush has cleared 140,000 hectares of rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon and is accelerating as foreign, armed groups move into the region to profit from record gold prices, according to a report.

About 540 square miles of land have been cleared for mining in the South American country since 1984, and the environmental destruction is spreading rapidly across the country, Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) and its Peruvian partner organisation, Conservación Amazónica, found.

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Green groups criticise plans to weaken protections for English national parks

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Exclusive: Letter from 170-plus organisations calls on government to drop proposed changes to planning law

Plans to water down protections for national parks such as Dartmoor and the Lake District in a “kneejerk bid for growth” will be devastating for nature, more than 170 organisations have told the prime minister.

The Treasury is understood to be pushing for a weakening of protections for England’s national parks and national landscapes in changes to planning law to make it easier for developers to build houses and infrastructure projects.

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‘Baudin’s or bauxite?’ Stark warning black cockatoo won’t survive mining expansion

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BirdLife WA calls consequences of Alcoa’s proposals to clear 11,000ha of jarrah forest ‘irreversible and catastrophic’ for endangered bird

The destruction of Western Australia’s northern jarrah forests for bauxite mining will push a threatened black cockatoo “to and beyond the brink of extinction” if governments allowed it to continue, conservationists have warned.

Mark Henryon, a volunteer with Birdlife Western Australia, said there was a clear choice that would decide whether the endangered Baudin’s black cockatoo would survive. “Baudin’s or bauxite – we can’t have both,” he said.

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